Judge OKs $4B BP oil spill criminal settlement NEW ORLEANS (AP) — BP PLC closed the book on the Justice Department’s criminal probe of its role in the Deepwater Horizon disaster and Gulf oil spill Tuesday, when a federal judge agreed to let the London-based oil giant plead guilty to manslaughter charges for the deaths of 11 rig workers and pay a record $4 billion in penalties. What the plea deal approved by U.S. District Judge Sarah Vance doesn’t resolve, though, is the federal government’...

Coast Guard: Barge leaked 7,000 gallons of oil VICKSBURG, Miss. (AP) — The Coast Guard said Tuesday that about 7,000 gallons of crude oil were unaccounted for aboard a leaking barge that had rammed a railroad bridge near Vicksburg on the Mississippi River, which remained closed for a third day as crews slowly pumped out oil. Petty Officer 3rd Class Jonathan Lally said it’s not clear that all of the 7,000 gallons leaked into the river since the collision early Sunday. Some of it, he said, c...

Humble nickel from 1913 likely to fetch millions RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — A humble 5-cent coin with a storied past is headed to auction and bidding is expected to top $2 million a century after it was mysteriously minted. The 1913 Liberty Head nickel is one of only five known to exist, but it’s the coin’s back story that adds to its cachet: It was surreptitiously and illegally cast, discovered in a car wreck that killed its owner, declared a fake, forgotten in a closet for decades and then found...

Wash. vows to try to keep weed in state — but how? SEATTLE (AP) — So far, no one is suggesting checkpoints or fences to keep Washington state’s legal pot within its borders. But Gov. Jay Inslee insists there are ways to prevent the bulk smuggling of the state’s newest cash crop into the black market, including digitally tracking weed to ensure that it goes from where it is grown to the stores where it is sold. With sales set to begin later this year, he hopes to be a good neighbor and keep van...

Ex-Ill. Gov. Ryan faces changed world after prison CHICAGO (AP) — When former Illinois Gov. George Ryan steps out of prison on Wednesday after serving five-plus years for corruption, he will return to a life altered by personal tragedy and to a state altered by his and his successor’s legacy of corruption. Ryan, who is headed to a halfway house in Chicago, will encounter an Illinois that has enacted reforms meant to thwart the kind of wheeling and dealing the Republican was accused of engaging...

Hagel supports nuclear arms cuts, then elimination WASHINGTON (AP) — Chuck Hagel, the likely next secretary of defense, would be the first to enter the Pentagon having publicly advocated for sharply reducing the number of U.S. nuclear weapons, possibly without equivalent cuts by Russia. He supports an international movement called Global Zero that favors eliminating all nuclear weapons. That puts him outside the orthodoxy embraced by many of his fellow Republicans but inside a widening circle ...

Cadavers honored in med student dissection lab GARY, Ind. (AP) — When medical students have finished their study and practice on cadavers, they often hold a respectful memorial service to honor these bodies donated to science. But the ceremonies at one medical school have a surreal twist: Relatives gather around the cold steel tables where their loved ones were dissected and which now hold their remains beneath metal covers. The tables are topped with white or burgundy-colored shrouds, fla...

After gun crime, weapon history takes time to find WASHINGTON (AP) — In the fictional world of television police dramas, a few quick clicks on a computer lead investigators to the owner of a gun recovered at a bloody crime scene. Before the first commercial, the TV detectives are on the trail of the suspect. Reality is a world away. There is no national database of guns. Not of who owns them, how many are sold annually or even how many exist. Federal law bars the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Fi...

Texas woman’s execution halted; DA won’t appeal HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) — The first woman scheduled to be executed in the U.S. since 2010 won a reprieve Tuesday, mere hours before she was scheduled to be taken to the Texas death chamber. State District Judge Larry Mitchell, in Dallas, rescheduled Kimberly McCarthy’s punishment for April 3 so lawyers for the former nursing home therapist could have more time to pursue an appeal focused on whether her predominantly white jury was improperly se...

US eyes drone base in Africa with al-Qaida in mind WASHINGTON (AP) — Plans to base unarmed American surveillance drones in the African nation of Niger highlight the Obama administration’s growing concern about extremist influences in the volatile region. They also raise tough questions about how to contain al-Qaida and other militant groups without committing U.S. ground forces in yet another war. In the short run, a drone base would enable the U.S. to give France more intelligence on the mili...

3 months after Sandy, victims waiting for relief NEW YORK (AP) — Devon Lawrence neatly stacked bricks on the gas burner of his kitchen stove and turned up the blue flame, creating a sort of radiator that warmed the ice-cold room. His two-story house in the Far Rockaway section of Queens hasn’t had working heat since Superstorm Sandy’s floodwaters destroyed the oil burner in the basement. Now mold is growing upstairs because the house has been cold and damp for so long. Lawrence wakes early e...

LaHood departure leaves another vacancy in Cabinet WASHINGTON (AP) — Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, who lifted the profile of distracted driving as a national safety concern, is stepping down, presenting President Barack Obama with another Cabinet vacancy at the start of his second term. The former congressman from Illinois and one of only two Republicans who served in Obama’s Cabinet, LaHood worked for more safety in the air and on the ground and pushed for improvements of roads and bri...

Scouts’ future uncertain if ban on gays is dropped NEW YORK (AP) — The Boy Scouts of America’s proposed move away from its no-gays membership policy has outraged some longtime admirers, gratified many critics and raised intriguing questions about the iconic organization’s future. Will the Scouts now be split between troops with gay-friendly policies and those that keep the ban? What will a National Jamboree be like if it brings together these disparate groups with conflicting ideologies? Will ...

Report: States force jobless to pay needless fees WASHINGTON (AP) — Jobless Americans are paying millions in unnecessary fees to collect unemployment benefits because of state policies encouraging them to get the money through bank-issued payment cards, according to a new report from a consumer group. People are using the fee-heavy cards instead of getting their payments deposited directly to their bank accounts. That’s because states issue bank cards automatically, require complicated paperw...

Obama on immigration overhaul: ’Now is the time’ LAS VEGAS (AP) — Declaring “now is the time” to fix the nation’s broken immigration system, President Barack Obama on Tuesday outlined broad proposals for putting millions of illegal immigrants on a clear path to citizenship while cracking down on businesses that employ people illegally and tightening security at the borders. He hailed a bipartisan Senate group on a similar track but left unresolved key details that could derail the complex an...

Gnomes to stay on California utility poles for now OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — Small paintings of gnomes that have popped up on utility poles have become a community sensation in Oakland, prompting Pacific Gas & Electric Co. to say Tuesday that it will keep them in place for now. The hand-painted portraits on 6-inch blocks of wood began going up last year in an apparent effort to brighten up the blue-collar California city. There are currently more than 2,000 of the images on utility poles, with ma...

10 Things to Know for Tuesday, Jan. 29, 2013Your daily look at late-breaking news, upcoming events and the stories that will be talked about Tuesday: 1. BOY SCOUTS POISED FOR A BIG CHANGE Under a new policy, sponsors of individual Scout units would be able to decide for themselves whether to accept gays as scouts and leaders. 2. A SHOW OF BIPARTISANSHIP ON IMMIGRATION Leading senators of both parties outline legislation aimed at giving some 11 million illegal immigrants a path to U.S. c...

10 Things to Know for Monday, Jan. 28, 2013Your daily look at late-breaking news, upcoming events and the stories that will be talked about today: 1. BLOCKED EXIT TRAPPED BRAZIL'S NIGHTCLUB VICTIMS Security guards briefly tried to block people from exiting the club before the fire that left more than 230 dead. 2. WHERE NEWS OF THE FIRE HIT HOME Memories are still fresh in Warwick, R.I., the scene of a pyrotechnics-sparked nightclub blaze that killed 100 in 2003. 3. AN AGREEMENT ON IMMI...

Investigator: Crashed plane dove into mud MONROE, La. (AP) - A plane that crashed and killed four men last week dove almost straight into mud while making a second approach to Monroe Regional Airport, a federal investigator said Monday. The impact created an 8-foot-crater and left debris spread over nearly an acre in Richwood, south of Monroe, National Transportation Safety Board Investigator Stuart Bothwell told a news conference in Monroe. "This is one of the worst I've ever seen," ...

Crashed plane moved from Richwood to Monroe MONROE, La. (AP) - A federal investigator says a plane that crashed and killed four men last week dove almost straight into mud while making a second approach to Monroe Regional Airport. National Transportation Safety Board Investigator Stuart Bothwell on Monday told a news conference in Monroe that the impact created an 8-foot-crater and left debris spread over nearly an acre in Richwood, south of Monroe. NTSB spokesman Eric Weiss in Washingt...